On December 15, 2009, the two agencies agreed to buy 1,644 acres (665 ha) of property adjacent to the Vasco Caves.[3] The purchase price was $2.924 million and included no mineral rights or wind rights or wind turbine revenues. The property was previously owned by Vaquero Farms Conservation LLC, and included 190 wind turbines owned by Tres Vaqueros Wind Farms and North Wind Energy. The new Vaquero Farms tract will not be open for public access, but will be held in land bank status because of sensitive wildlife habitat and ongoing wind turbine operations.[4]

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The preserve contains some spectacular rock outcroppings. On top of the rocks there are vernal pools that are habitats for the long-horned fairy shrimp (Anostraca). Nearby are natural springs which harbor the red-legged frog. Other wildlife are frequently seen, including kit fox, coyote, and raptors such as eagles and hawks.[1]

1.
Mount Diablo
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Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton and northeast of Danville and it is an isolated upthrust peak of 3,849 feet, visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area. The summit is accessible by foot, bicycle, or motor vehicle, Road access is via North Gate Road or South Gate Road. The peak is in Mount Diablo State Park, a park of about 20,000 acres. Preserved lands on and around Mount Diablo total more than 90,000 acres. The day use fee per vehicle for the park is by entrance way, $6 via Macedo Ranch or Mitchell Canyon, on a clear day the Sierra Nevada is plainly visible. The best views are after a storm, a snowy Sierra shows up better. Lassen Peak,181 miles away, is occasionally just visible over the curve of the earth, sentinel Dome in Yosemite National Park is visible, but Half Dome is hidden by the 8000-foot ridge at 37. 755N119. 6657W. Eight bridges are visible, from west to east, San Mateo, Bay, Golden Gate, San Rafael, Carquinez, Benicia, Antioch, claims that the mountains viewshed is the largest in the world‍—‌or second largest after Mount Kilimanjaro‍—‌are ill founded. It does boast one of the largest viewsheds in the Western United States, countless peaks in the state are taller, but Mount Diablo has a remarkable visual prominence for a mountain of such low elevation. The summit is used as the datum for land surveying in much of northern California. Mount Diablo is sacred to many California Native American peoples, according to Miwok mythology and Ohlone mythology, prior to European entry, the creation narrative varied among surrounding local groups. In one surviving fragment, Mount Diablo and Reeds Peak were surrounded by water. In another, Molok the Condor brought forth his grandson Wek-Wek the Falcon Hero, about 25 independent tribal groups with well-defined territories lived in the East Bay countryside surrounding the mountain. Their members spoke dialects of three languages, Ohlone, Bay Miwok, and Northern Valley Yokuts. The Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone from Mission San Jose and the East Bay area, called the mountain Tuyshtak, the Nisenan of the Sacramento Valley called it Sukkú Jaman, or as Nisenan elder Dalbert Castro once explained, the place where dogs came from in trade. A Southern Miwok name was Supemenenu and it has also been suggested that an early Indian name for the mountain is Kawukum or Kahwookum, but there is no evidence to confirm the assertion. It resurfaced as a real estate gimmick in 1916 with a new translation, Laughing Mountain

2.
California chaparral and woodlands
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The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of lower northern, central, and southern California and northwestern Baja California, located on the west coast of North America. It is an ecoregion of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Biome, the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion is subdivided into three smaller ecoregions. California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion, In southern coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California, as well as all the Channel Islands of California and Guadalupe Island. California interior chaparral and woodlands, In central interior California surrounding the California Central Valley cover the foothills, the ecoregion includes a great variety of plant communities, including grasslands, oak savannas and woodlands, chaparral, and coniferous forests, including southern stands of the tall coast redwood. Species include the California gnatcatcher, Costas hummingbird, coast horned lizard, other animals found here are the Heermann kangaroo rat, Santa Cruz kangaroo rat, and the endangered white-eared pocket mouse. Another notable insect resident of this ecoregion is the rain beetle It spends up to years living underground in a larval stage. Chaparral, like most Mediterranean shrublands, is highly resilient and historically burned with high-severity. Historically, Native Americans burned chaparral to promote grasslands for textiles, though adapted to infrequent fires, chaparral plant communities can be exterminated by frequent fires especially with climate change induced drought. Today, frequent accidental ignitions can convert chaparral from a native shrubland to nonnative annual grassland and drastically reduce species diversity, some unique plant communities, like southern Californias Coastal Sage Scrub, have been nearly eradicated by agriculture and urbanization. As a result, the now has many rare and endangered species

3.
Rock art
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In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural stone, it is largely synonymous with parietal art. A global phenomenon, rock art is found in many diverse regions of the world. It has been produced in many contexts throughout history, although the majority of rock art that has been ethnographically recorded has been produced as a part of ritual. Such artworks are often divided into three forms, petroglyphs, which are carved into the surface, pictographs, which are painted onto the surface. The oldest known rock art dates from the Upper Palaeolithic period, having found in Europe, Australia, Asia. Archaeologists studying these artworks believe that they likely had magico-religious significance, Rock art continues to be of importance to indigenous peoples in various parts of the world, who view them as both sacred items and significant components of their cultural patrimony. Such archaeological sites are significant sources of cultural tourism, and have been utilised in popular culture for their aesthetic qualities. Normally found in cultures, a rock relief or rock-cut relief is a relief sculpture carved on solid or living rock such as a cliff. They are a category of art, and sometimes found in conjunction with rock-cut architecture. However, they tend to be omitted in most works on rock art, a few such works exploit the natural contours of the rock and use them to define an image, but they do not amount to man-made reliefs. Rock reliefs have been made in many cultures, and were important in the art of the Ancient Near East. Rock reliefs are generally large, as they need to be to make an impact in the open air. Most have figures that are over life-size, and in many the figures are multiples of life-size, the vertical relief is most common, but reliefs on essentially horizontal surfaces are also found. The term typically excludes relief carvings inside caves, whether natural or themselves man-made, natural rock formations made into statues or other sculpture in the round, most famously at the Great Sphinx of Giza, are also usually excluded. Reliefs on large boulders left in their location, like the Hittite İmamkullu relief, are likely to be included. The term rock art appears in the literature as early as the 1940s. It has also described as rock carvings, rock drawings, rock engravings, rock inscriptions, rock paintings, rock pictures. The defining characteristic of rock art is that it is placed on natural rock surfaces, as such, rock art is a form of landscape art, and includes designs that have been placed on boulder and cliff faces, cave walls and ceilings, and on the ground surface

4.
Diablo Range
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The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges. It is located in the eastern San Francisco Bay area south to the Salinas Valley area of northern California, the United States. The Diablo Range extends from the Carquinez Strait in the north to Orchard Peak in the south, near the point where State Route 46 crosses over the Coast Ranges at Cholame, as described by the USGS. It is bordered on the northeast by the San Joaquin River, on the southeast by the San Joaquin Valley, on the southwest by the Salinas River, geologically, the range corresponds to the California Coast Ranges east of the Calaveras Fault in this northern section. Though the average elevation is about 3,000 feet, a summit at over 2,300 feet is considered high, mainly because the range is mostly rolling grasslands and plateaus, the plateaus are usually at about 2, 000–3,000 feet. The hills rising out of valleys rise to about 1,000 feet at most, foothills, such as the which are found near the Santa Clara Valley, Livermore Valley and San Joaquin Valley, are lowest, from 400–1,000 feet. Canyons usually are 300–400 feet deep and valleys are deeper but gentler, the peaks often have high topographic prominence because they are typically surrounded by hills, valleys, or lower plateaus. Streams draining the slopes of the Diablo Range include Hospital Creek. Stream draining the western slopes include Alameda Creek and Coyote Creek, the Diablo Ranges following peaks and ridges are between 2, 517–5,241 feet and are distinct landmarks. Mount Diablo, San Benito Mountain, Mount Hamilton Ridge, the Diablo Range is paralleled for much of its distance by U. S. Route 101 to the west and by I-5 to the east. The Diablo Range is largely unpopulated outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, major nearby communities include Antioch, Concord, Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Pleasanton, Livermore, Fremont and the Central Valley city of Tracy. In the South Bay, communities near the range are Milpitas, eastern San Jose, Morgan Hill, South of Pacheco Pass, the only major nearby communities are Los Baños, and Hollister. The small town of Coalinga may also be notable for its location on State Route 198, most of the range consists of private ranchland, limiting recreational use. In addition, some land is held in conservation easements by the California Rangeland Trust. In addition, the elevation of 3,000 feet is not high enough to catch most of the incoming moisture at higher altitudes. Winters are mild with rainfall, but summers are very dry. Areas above 2,500 feet get light to moderate snow in the winter, especially at the highest point, however, though sites at the lower end get annual snowfall, it is typically light and melts too fast to be noticed. Once or twice a decade there is deep and long lasting snowfall

5.
Livermore, California
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Livermore is a city in Alameda County, California, in the United States. With an estimated 2014 population of 86,870, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley, Livermore is located on the eastern edge of Californias San Francisco Bay Area. The incumbent Mayor of Livermore is John Marchand, a registered Democrat, Livermore was founded by William Mendenhall and named after Robert Livermore, his friend and a local rancher who settled in the area in the 1840s. Livermore is the home of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, for which the chemical element livermorium is named, Livermore is also the California site of Sandia National Laboratories, which is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its south side is home to local vineyards, the city has redeveloped its downtown district and is considered part of the Tri-Valley area, comprising Amador, Livermore and San Ramon valleys. Before its incorporation in 1796 under the Franciscan Mission San Jose, located in what is now the part of Fremont. Each mission had two to three friars and a contingent of up to five soldiers to keep order in the mission. Other tribes were coerced into other adjacent missions, the Mission Indians were restricted to the mission grounds where they lived in sexually segregated barracks that they built themselves with padre instruction. The Livermore-Amador Valley after 1800 to about 1837 was primarily used as grazing land for some of the Mission San Joses growing herds of cattle, sheep. The herds grew wild with no fences and were culled about once a year for cow hides, the dead animals were left to rot or feed the California grizzly bears which then roamed the region. Some Indians joined or re-joined some of the few surviving tribes, the about 48, 000-acre Rancho Las Positas grant, which includes most of Livermore, was made to ranchers Robert Livermore and Jose Noriega in 1839. Most land grants were given little or no cost to the recipients. Robert Livermore was a British citizen who had jumped from a British merchant sailing ship stopping in Monterey, California and he became a naturalized Mexican citizen who had converted to Catholicism in 1823 as was required for citizenship and legal residence. Typical of most early rancho dwellings, the first building on his ranch was an adobe on Las Positas Creek near the end of todays Las Positas Road. The non-Indian population exploded, and cattle were suddenly worth much more than the $1. 00-$3.00 their hides could bring and it is believed to be the first wooden building in the Livermore Tri-Valley. Most horse traffic went by way of Altamont Pass just east of Livermore, Robert Livermore was a very accommodating host and welcomed nearly all that stopped by with lodging and meals. Robert Livermore died in 1858 and was buried at Mission San Jose before the establishment of the town bears his name. His ranch included much of the present-day city, the city of Livermore, named in honor of Robert Livermore, was established in 1869 by William Mendenhall, who had first met Livermore while marching through the valley with John C

6.
Land banking
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Land banking is the practice of aggregating parcels of land for future sale or development. Land banks are quasi-governmental entities created by counties or municipalities to manage and repurpose an inventory of underused, abandoned. They are often chartered to have powers that allow them to accomplish these goals in ways that existing government agencies can not, beginning in the early 1970s municipalities began to seek solutions to manage decline or spur revitalization in once prosperous city neighborhoods. The first land bank was created in St. Louis in 1971, Land banking in the UK was previously the preserve of the landed gentry or real estate developers. Many reputable listed commercial building companies engage successfully in land banking for future building projects, companies also purchase land sites and easily divide them into smaller plots, then offer these plots for sale to individual investors. This relatively new practice in the UK does not fall under the control of the Financial Services Authority, many people are wary of this form of investment as many plot based land banking companies have failed or been closed down. There are currently no audited successes recorded for UK plot based land banking despite the UK having gone through a property boom in the period 2002 – Jul 2007. Section 26 provides that an agreement made by a person in contravention of this is unenforceable, since the changes in the land registration act, a number of companies offering UK land plots as an investment have been formed. Typically this land is greenbelt, nature conservation, flood plain, there are no recorded successful planning permission applications for plots sold under such collective investment schemes. There have been considerable losses recorded by investors in UK land plot investment schemes, a large number of British companies offering UK land plots have failed or been shut down by the FSA or other authorities. Some companies have now moved offshore after FSA investigation, in June 2010 the Monetary Authority of Singapore issued a warning on land banking plots schemes warning they may be a scam with specific focus on companies offering land from the UK and Canada. A company representative may contact an individual by telephone, in shopping center booths, or at property shows. Verbal communication will often indicate that the land is fast tracked for building approval and has potential as building land. When pricing the land reference is made to approved building land prices at the market peak. Very often the land banking company will present detailed plans showing a housing development on the site and these plans are often referred to as pre-approved, concept or predevelopment. The sales person will focus on the future value of the land against the current selling price. No reference is made to the value of green belt or agricultural land, or the issues involved with the long term maintenance. The sales price is typically uplifted 10–100 times over the current value of the land, plans shown have no validity in UK planning law and cannot be considered as any indication of progress in the planning process

7.
Anostraca
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Anostraca is one of the four orders of crustaceans in the class Branchiopoda, its members are also known as fairy shrimp. They are usually 6–25 mm long, most species have 20 body segments, bearing 11 pairs of leaf-like phyllopodia, and the body lacks a carapace. They live in pools and hypersaline lakes across the world, including pools in deserts, in ice-covered mountain lakes. They swim upside-down and feed by filtering organic particles from the water or by scraping algae from surfaces and they are an important food for many birds and fish, and are cultured and harvested for use as fish food. There are 300 species spread across 8 families, the body of a fairy shrimp is elongated and divided into segments. The whole animal is typically 6–25 millimetres long, but one species, Branchinecta gigas does not reach maturity until it reaches 50 mm long. The exoskeleton is thin and flexible, and lacks any sign of a carapace, the body can be divided into three distinct parts – head, thorax and abdomen. The head is distinct from the thorax. It bears two eyes on prominent stalks, and two pairs of antennae. The first pair of antennae are small, usually unsegmented, the second pair are long and cylindrical in females, but in males they are enlarged and specialised for holding the female during mating. In some groups, males have an additional frontal appendage, the thorax of most anostracans has 13 segments. All but the last two are similar, with a pair of biramous phyllopods. The last two segments are fused together, and their appendages are specialised for reproduction, most anostracans have separate sexes, but a few reproduce by parthenogenesis. The abdomen comprises 6 segments without appendages, and a telson, the head contains two digestive glands and the small lobate stomach that they empty into. This is connected to an intestine, which terminates in a short rectum. The haemocoel of anostracans is pumped by a long, tubular heart, a series of slits allow haemocoel into the heart, which is then pumped out of the anterior opening by peristalsis. The nervous system consists of two nerve cords which run the length of the body, with two ganglia and two transverse commissures in most of the body segments. Gas exchange is thought to place through the entire body surface, but especially that of the phyllopodia and their associated gills

8.
Del Valle Regional Park
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Del Valle Regional Park is a park of the East Bay Regional Park District in unincorporated Alameda County, California, south of the city of Livermore. The park is 4,316 acres big, the park largely surrounds Lake Del Valle, an artificial reservoir made from the damming of Arroyo Valle, a small river. The lake provides a source of recreation for visitors including swimming, fishing, there are lifeguards present at designated swimming areas. The park also offers 28 miles of hiking, horseback, and bicycle trails, there are many prominent and locally famous cliffjumping locations around the lake including The Rock, The Swallow Bay Cliff, and The Pillars. All can be accessed through various trails surrounding the park, the park can be approached from Mines or Arroyo Road, where the parking meter is often broken. Del Valle Park at the EBRPD website

9.
Lake Chabot Regional Park
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Lake Chabot Regional Park is a regional park located in the southern Berkeley Hills in Alameda County, California. It is part of the East Bay Regional Parks system, Lake Chabot is a reservoir located in the park. The dam and reservoirs water are part of the East Bay Municipal Utility District water system, official Lake Chabot Regional Park website EBMUD official website

10.
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
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Middle Harbor Shoreline Park is located on San Francisco Bay and the Port of Oakland entrance channel, west of downtown Oakland, California It is operated by the East Bay Regional Parks District. The park is primarily on land that was the site of the Oakland Naval Supply Depot. The Naval Supply Depot closed in 1998 and the property was transferred to the Port of Oakland, the interlocking tower from the railroads pier has been moved and partially restored as a small commemorative museum. The land was redeveloped for the park from 2002 to 2004, redevelopment of the land included restoration of beaches and creation of a lagoon. The mast of the USS Oakland is displayed at the entrance of the park, East Bay Regional Parks District, official Middle Harbor Shoreline Park website Map, 37°48′21″N 122°19′27″W